MAINE VIEWPOINT
Youth center children need
advocates
In its recent editorial on monitoring the status
of adolescents in the two youth centers, the Press Herald correctly
identified the issue as how best to hold the Department of
Corrections accountable to the rehabilitative purposes required by
Maine law.
The best way to insure that accountability is
through the use of guardians ad litem. A bill currently pending
before the Legislature, L.D. 1376, sponsored by Sen. Ethan Strimling,
D-Portland, would establish that system. The Department of
Corrections opposes the proposal.
The bill would require a court to assign a
guardian ad litem to every committed adolescent and to hold an
informal review of that commitment at least every six months. The
guardian would prepare a brief report (based on visits with the
child, records review and participation in treatment team meetings)
and meet with a judge.
If there is no problem, there would be no formal
hearing. At some point, however, if the court finds that appropriate
services are not being provided, it may intervene and remove the
child from the institution.
PROTECT EACH CHILD
The first goal of the bill is to protect each
adolescent from mistreatment. As the youth centers are currently
operated, this should not be a problem. However, things can change
rapidly in this type of institution. The Maine Youth Center was
lauded as a national model of juvenile treatment in the 1980s. By
the mid-1990s, however, evaluations concluded it was warehousing
children and had a prison-like atmosphere.
Juveniles were being restrain- ed and isolated for
excessive periods of time and denied mental health treatment,
leading to significant long-term physical, mental and emotional
damage. We must be absolutely certain that we never allow the
institutions to deteriorate to that shameful state again.
The second goal of the bill is to assure that
committed adolescents are provided with rehabilitation services
necessary to successfully transition them back into the community.
Without new skills, training and a thoughtful after-care program, a
return to the juvenile justice system is almost inevitable.
The Press Herald asked whether the best way to
reach these goals was through the use of a guardian system, or
through some other mechanism, such as the Board of Visitors.
As former members of the Board of Visitors for the
Youth Center, we know that the board is not designed to address the
needs of individual juveniles. Board members have limited terms,
virtually no authority and no staff. They barely have the resources
to look at overall trends in the facilities.
It is misplaced optimism to think that, even with
broader powers, the board would be able to protect and support 80 to
100 individual juveniles.
A guardianship system, on the other hand, is
specifically designed to focus on protection and support of an
individual child. In fact, every child who is taken into the custody
of the Department of Health and Human Services is assigned a
guardian ad litem for exactly that reason.
How can we not believe that at least the same
level of oversight should be provided for already troubled juveniles
who are placed in a closed institution with little or no contact
with the outside world?
COURT'S EYES AND EARS
As the eyes and ears of the court, charged with
making sure that the interests of an individual child are
represented, the guardian is uniquely positioned to contribute to
the rehabilitation of the child. As a member of the community, the
guardian may ask questions that may not occur to those within the
system.
Because the guardian has no disciplinary control
over the juvenile, guardians may develop a special, supportive
relationship which will help the child understand the importance of
participating in the treatment program. They may also make sure the
child does not "fall through the cracks" when specific
rehabilitative services are needed.
The program has been designed to be inexpensive to
administer. When the institutions are meeting their obligations, as
they generally are now, the guardian will simply file the report and
meet with the judge. To reduce costs further, a large number of
social workers, attorneys and youth workers have agreed to donate
their services to serve as guardians over the next two years.
The provision of a guardian ad litem for each
juvenile placed in DOC custody is a practical and effective means of
increasing the likelihood that a juvenile will make a successful
return to our communities. The minimal cost is a good investment in
the future of our children and our communities.
Ned Chester and David Lakari
April 2005
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/viewpoints/mvoice/050413guardians.shtml
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1056-1585479,00.html
